


Flying is a Child's Past-time

by gregariousProtagonist



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alpha Timeline, Gen, Post-Scratch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-05
Updated: 2012-03-05
Packaged: 2017-11-01 04:14:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/351804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gregariousProtagonist/pseuds/gregariousProtagonist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dave knows he is different.  He knows why the other kids look at him funny.  But none of that matters because he has John, even if he does wear silly blue pajamas. </p><p>John says that just because he's imaginary does not mean their friendship is imaginary.  How could it be when Dave can feel it burning deep in the pit of his stomach?  It's more real than anything he knows.</p><p>A story about post-scratch Dave and the boy who visits him in his dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flying is a Child's Past-time

**Author's Note:**

> I know I'm late to the party but I really missed the beta kids. And who doesn't love a little sad post-scratch Dave?

When Dave is five he knows he is different. The other kids have parents who come in sets of two, one mommy and one daddy each. Dave has a set of two as well, not like Lily May Prescot whose mother has been on vacation for over a year now, but his are off brand parents. They are called Charlotte and Stuart and are too old and too paunchy to be considered authentic. Not at all like the other youthful mothers and charming fathers.  


To make matters worse, Dave has knock-off eyes as well. Sharp and red, the same color as the legos Charlotte gave him for a “welcome-to-the-family” gift. The other kids were interested at first, asked him if they came from his mom or his dad. Dave said he didn’t know, that he didn’t know what the color his parents’ eyes were. They eyed him warily after that, mistrust coming in hazels, greens, and browns.  


This is okay, though, because Dave has a friend. His friend doesn’t have any parents either, not even the knock-off kind with real names and too-big smiles. Dave is pretty sure his friend lives at the playground and is infinitely jealous.  


His friend is called John and he has normal blue eyes, normal buckteeth, and normal glasses. That’s the best part about John, his normalcy, that Dave can have someone so typical, so fabulously nondescript as a best friend.  


John is also hilarious. He tells stories about two stupid guys who can’t keep from falling down stairs, can’t drive the car, can’t do much of anything, until the boys are sick with laughter. When the other kids make fun of them, John says it is because they are jealous. This gives Dave a special thrill.

  


* * *

When Dave is seven he asks why John never goes to school. John smiles at him and says no one ever told him he had to go to school. This smile fades to worry when Dave tells him that it’s illegal or something not to go.  


He follows Dave into the building, obedient but shy. Dave decides not to bring up John’s blue pajamas. He does not want to make him anymore uncomfortable than he already is. Besides, if Charlotte did not make him change Dave would probably wear pajamas all the time. Red ones, or maybe orange.  


Mrs. Snow smiles as Dave explains to her about John. He tells her that John did not know school was a thing that had to happen, that he didn’t have any parents at all, and that he will make sure John behaves himself. She laughs when Dave asks her not to call the police. He hopes that means she won’t.  


Thankfully, she moves a chair next to Dave’s desk and says she hopes John won’t mind sharing a spot with him for a while. The class really is quite full. John plops down into the chair and Dave says it will be no problem at all and thanks her. He always makes sure to thank adults.  


John isn’t very good at paying attention in class. Instead, he draws little comics in the corners of Dave’s assignments and does nothing to stop the giggles that bubble unbidden past Dave’s lips. Even though Mrs. Snow throws the occasional frown their way, Dave has never had this much fun at school in his entire life. 

* * *

When Dave is seven he is furious for the first time in his life. John pretends not to understand why. Dave says he lied. John says it was just a little prank. Dave says he lied. John says he didn’t mean to embarrass him like that. Dave says he lied. John says they’re still friends, even if he is imaginary.  


Dave asks him to leave. John doesn’t say anything. When Dave turns around John is gone. Dave says he lied. 

* * *

When Dave is ten, John comes back. Dave is pretty sure he’s asleep and he is certain that John is not real. Yet the smile creeps from the corner of his lips. He blames it on the dreamy haze that drapes itself over the room, not the warm breath that is swirling around in his stomach.  


John looks the same. The same dweeby blue pajamas. The same normal glasses, buck teeth, and brown hair. Dave is the one who is different now. He wears dark shades with tight jeans and shirts with outdated slogans to show how little he cares about the world around him. He’s stopped trying to hide his loneliness. Instead, he throws it over his shoulders like a cape. Reminding his classmates that he doesn’t need them, reminding them that he is different.  


John does not say sorry, neither does Dave. Instead, John asks if he can show Dave something. Dave shrugs and says he has nothing else going on. John lets out a small laugh and they are flying.  


Dave’s bedroom fades away and he finds himself looking out over purple. There are towers and spires and stone. The purple tastes like plums and sugar in his mouth and there are horrors above him in the sky. But Dave is not afraid, he is enraptured, captivated by the clarity of it all. There is the familiar warmth of John’s hand in his own. It feels solid.  


While they fly John tells him this place is called Derse. When Dave asks if this is where John lives his friend shakes his head. John lives somewhere else, this place is Dave’s. Dave tells him it can be their place and John laughs.  


Dave returns to Derse each night and John fills his dreams with stories. Stories about the blind girl who sees and the crippled page who walks. About a knight covered in blood who loved too much and tried too hard. Stories about a girl who gave in to the darkness and then became a god. Stories about a pirate, a vampire, a boy who angered angels, and a girl who could hold the universe in the palm of her hand.  


* * *

When Dave is fourteen his dreams are full of women. Tall women with blonde hair that undulates while they walk, brunettes with large breasts and plush rumps, and short women with sharp angles, sharp teeth, and sharp wit.  


When he does dream of Derse, he does most of the talking. Dave regales John with tales of his friends. The new ones who laugh at all his jokes, who praise his comics, and who wear shades just so they can be just like him.  


John shares his joy, just like always. Laughing and smiling at all the right places. But still he opens his mouth to speak of the condescending witch and the heroes that must wake up. Dave hears the words fall around him. They no longer contain comfort, instead the purple is a suffocating sour grape and John is excruciatingly normal.  


When Dave finds himself in bed next to women of his dreams he does not mind as much as he should. Flying is a child’s past time.

* * *

When Dave is twenty-eight he hardly ever sleeps. He is impossibly admired for making horribly ironic movies that make no sense. Or, as he often tells interviewers, is the sense they make just too obvious to notice. He is always in the public eye, for better or for worse.  


The moments he has to himself are given to Dirk. Dave remembers what it was like to feel alone, remembers how he never felt quite at home with Charlotte and Stuart. He does what he can for Dirk, buys him little gifts and offers to take him to movie premiers. It is not enough, but it is something. And when Dirk shows Dave his first robot Dave is so proud of his little bro he could almost burst.  


When he does get a break from making kick-ass filmage and raising his rad bro, Dave rarely dreams. But sometimes, once or twice a year, he sees purple while he sleeps. It surrounds him in a dull spices and a blurred fog. Sometimes he sees spires and towers, sometimes just the purple.  


He is always looking for something. Straining through the static so he can reach the itch that burns at the base of his skull. He can almost reach it, then the sun rises.  


Sometimes, he sees it during the day, when he catches the right shade of blue out of the corner of his eye. But the knowledge leaves just as fast as it came, dancing away on the wind.  


Dave is almost disappointed when he wakes without dreams. That is, until he remembers he can’t miss something that does not exist.


End file.
